BP exec. denies cost saving major factor in well design

A senior BP drilling manager today denied that cost savings were put over safety in the company’s decision to go with a cheaper well design at the Macondo prospect — a design that some experts have deemed more risky.

“Cost is a factor in a lot of decisions, but it is never put before safety,” David Sims, a BP drilling and completions operations manager, told a joint investigation panel of the Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

Internal BP reports released previously by congressional investigators showed BP engineers had originally selected a more conventional well design using double pipes, called a liner and tie-back.

The company later switched to a single-pipe design, even though an earlier company review had determined that the thinner casing would need additional testing because it would provide an open highway for gas to travel up to the wellhead. The documents suggested concerns about the single-pipe design had been allayed — and it also represented the “best economic case.”

Sims estimated the company could save $7 to $10 million with the so-called long string option.

But he said the switch did not represent a major change in the well and that there were no safety concerns about using the long-string design.

Under questioning about why the recommendation to change the design included information about how much money it would save BP, Sims said any company has to take into account costs when making decisions. But he stressed again it was not the primary consideration in this case.

Separately, Sims was asked if he had been pressured to reduce costs on the Macondo well project, which was delayed and over budget.

After a long pause, he said pressures he was under were not “primarily to lower the cost, no.” Nor was his bonus pay linked to bringing the well in under budget, he said.